Since 1997 local authorities in the UK have been carrying out Review and Assessment of air quality in their area. The aim of the review is to make sure that the national air quality objectives will be achieved by the stated deadline. If a local authority finds any locations where the objectives are not likely to be achieved, it must declare an Air Quality Management Areas (AQMA). A “Stage 4 Assessment” must then be carried out to confirm that the declaration was correct, and an Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP) prepared and agreed with DEFRA to reduce levels of specific pollutants so that they conform to the National Air Quality objectives.
The objectives likely to be of interest to Local Authorities are those for annual mean nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and for fine particles (PM10). It is possible that more stringent objectives for PM10, to be achieved in 2010, may be adopted. These are unlikely to be met in all locations within Dudley MB.
The DEFRA website holds information on the progress of each Local Authority in making the Air Quality Review and Assessment. It also gives information on any AQMAs declared and the status of any AQAPs.
Air Quality Management Area
During the second round of Review & Assessment, Dudley MBC declared two AQMAs with regard to annual mean NO2 concentrations at Brierley Hill and Sedgley.
An Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP) and Stage 4 Assessment for Brierley Hill were completed in October 2004. The AQAP proposed that construction of the Brierley Hill Sustainable Access Network (including a new alternative route parallel to the High Street), local public transport improvements and implementation of local Travel Plans would improve NO2 levels within the AQMA to meet the annual mean NO2 objective. Construction of the new route commenced in April 2007 and work is exected to be complete by October 2008. NO2 monitoring will continue throughout the Brierley Hill area during and after construction in order to quantify air quality improvements.
During the third round of Review and Assessment, further exceedences of the NO2 objective were identified in:
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Windmill Hill (Cradley)
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Wordsley High Street
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Pensnett High Street
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Quarry Bank High Street
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Lye (Pedmore Road/High Street)
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Netherton (Halesowen Road)
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Lower Gornal (Himley Road)
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Halesowen (Stourbridge Road)
An additional exceedence was also detected just outside the Sedgley AQMA. Further action was therefore required to extend the Sedgley AQMA boundary and to declare one or more new AQMA(s) which include the additional areas identified above.
Further information is contained within Dudley’s 2007 Detailed Assessment. This document can be downloaded from the related documents section at the bottom of this page.
Options to Adress Air Quality
Subsequently, Dudley MBC evaluated a number of possible options for addressing these actions and proposed that the existing AQMAs were consolidated into one new AQMA covering the whole of Dudley Borough. Consultation regarding these proposals, which can also be downloaded from the Related Documents section, took place between February and June 2007. No major objections to these proposals were received and Dudley MBC's Cabinet ratified the decision to declare the whole borough as an AQMA in September 2007. The Dudley Borough AQMA Order was sealed in December 2007 and revokes the earlier Brierley Hill and Sedgley AQMA orders (see related documents section below).
Work on the production of a consolidated AQAP for Dudley has now commenced and further information will be communicated in due course.
